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Saturday, November 7, 2015

UAE chairman of Manchester City pressures UK to crack down on Muslim Brothers

Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak with Prime Minister David Cameron at an FA Cup final

By James M. Dorsey

Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, chairman of Manchester City, one of
Britain’s most popular soccer clubs and a close business associate of UAE Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, has warned the UK that his
country would block multi-billion dollar arms deals, halt investment in Britain
and suspend intelligence cooperation if Prime Minister David Cameron failed to
crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood, according to internal UAE documents viewed
by The Guardian.

Mr. Al-Mubarak did not refer in his warnings to UAE
popularity garnered by the Gulf state’s massive investment in Manchester City.
Nonetheless, his involvement in the Gulf state’s coercive efforts to shape
British policies and impinge on press freedom underscores the need to govern
the relationship between soccer and politics that has been allowed to fester in
the shadows to the detriment of the sport and the advantage of autocrats with
deep pockets.

The murky relationship between sports and politics was further
highlighted by the fact that, according to The Guardian, Manchester City non-executive
director Simon Pearce, who doubles up as a public relations advisor to Prince
Mohammed and the UAE government, drafted briefing notes suggesting the UAE
could motivate David Cameron’s government to embrace the Gulf state’s
anti-Brotherhood attitude through lucrative oil and arms contracts and
cooperation with the British military.

Mr. Pearce’s notes listed for Sheikh Mohammed what could be
at stake for Britain: a return of BP involvement in the exploitation of offshore
Abu Dhabi oil, a proposed $9 billion Typhoon fighter jet deal, “further
deepening of the intelligence and military relationship”, and UAE investments,

The notes put UAE investments in Britain at $2.2 billion,
adding that were “huge opportunities for UK companies such as BP, BAE,
Rolls-Royce in the UAE” and that there were “120,000-plus British expats in the
UAE with a fantastic quality of life”.

The UAE’s demands for British action handled to a large
extent by the two Manchester City executives went as far as the Gulf state
attempting to curb British press freedom by insisting that the government
curtail independent reporting of the Brotherhood by the BBC.

In his briefing notes, Mr. Pearce, according to The Guardian,
asserted that Islamists had infiltrated

Britain’s public broadcaster. Mr.
Pearce said that “there are Egyptians and Levantine employees who allow their
personal politics to guide their professional activities. That service is
funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Do you understand why I might
have a problem with this?” Mr. Pearce suggested that “70% of global reporting emanates
from the UK and 70% of it is negative.” He counselled Sheikh Mohammed to demand
in talks with Mr. Cameron “help … with the BBC in particular.”

Disclosure of Mr. Pearce’s call for intervention in the
independence of the BBC came amid a fierce debate over the future of licence
fees, a key source of the broadcaster’s funding. UK culture secretary John Whittingdale
recently cautioned that the future of the BBC remains an “open question.”

Critics have charged that Mr. Cameron has caved in to Arab
autocrats despite widespread abuse of human rights that at times match those of
jihadist groups like the Islamic State in a bid to further Britain’s commercial
interests.

Human rights groups have taken the UAE to task for its
crackdown on dissidents, including the detention of lawyers and activists,
legal proceedings that lacked integrity, and the disappearance of Emirati
nationals believed to be critical of the government. The groups have in the
past cautioned that ownership of popular European soccer clubs allowed the UAE
and other Middle Eastern autocrats to launder their tarnished reputations.

Britain this week hosted Egyptian general-turned-president
Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, whose crackdown on the Brotherhood since coming to power
in a military coup in 2013, has left more than 1400 people dead, including up
to 1,000 Muslim Brother protesters killed in August 2013 in one day, and put up
to 40,000 people behind bars, some of which have been sentenced to death in
kangaroo trials.

Mr. Al-Sisi’s visit, designed in part to project the
Egyptian leader as a bulwark against jihadist violence, was marred by mounting
evidence that a Russian passenger plane that crashed in the Sinai last week,
may have been downed by an explosive device. The incident raises questions
about the Egyptian government’s ability to defeat jihadist groups operating in
the desert peninsula.

Britain earlier this month started construction in Bahrain
of the UK’s first permanent military base in the Middle East since its
withdrawal from the region as a colonial power in 1971. UAE and Saudi troops
helped Bahrain’s ruling family brutally squash a popular uprising in 2011.

UAE pressure on Britain also highlights the fracturing of a
coalition of Arab autocrats that in the wake of the popular uprisings in the
Middle East and North Africa had coalesced to counter the growing influence of
the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia, which took the lead in banning the
Brotherhood as a terrorist organization under the late King Abdullah has with
his successor, King Salman, sought, to cautiously rebuild ties with the group
to the chagrin of the UAE and Egypt.

The UAE has been for more than a decade on the warpath
against the Brotherhood while Mr. Al-Sisi in 2013 toppled the democratically
elected government of Mohammed Morsi, a Muslim Brother, with Saudi and UAE
support.

The UAE made its first efforts to influence British policy
in 2012 following Mr. Morsi’s emergence as Egypt’s first and only
democratically elected president. Two years later, Mr. Al-Mubarak, according to
The Guardian, warned British ambassador to the UAE Dominic Jeremy, that the
Emirates was raising a “red flag” regarding the British government’s apparent failure
to act on the Gulf state’s concerns.

Mr. Al-Mubarak warned that trust between the UAE and Britain
“has been challenged due to the UK position towards the Muslim Brotherhood…. Our
ally is not seeing it as we do: an existential threat not just to the UAE but
to the region.”

The issue of the Brotherhood’s legal status in Britain is
likely to become a matter of public debate and legal wrangling with the
expected publication of an independent inquiry into the group’s activities. The
review was conducted two years ago at the behest of the UAE and Saudi Arabia by
Britain’s former ambassador to the kingdom, Sir John Jenkins. The government
initially resisted publication of the report.

The Guardian quoted Mr. Jeremy as responding to Mr.
Al-Mubarak’s entreaties by saying that “the political intent of PM David
Cameron is to look at the (report’s) conclusions, which could potentially start
a process leading to parliamentary discussions on new legislation.”

Mr. Al-Mubarak was apparently unimpressed. Scores of British
military advisors in the UAE a month after the meeting between the two men that
their contracts were not being renewed.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam
School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Würzburg’s
Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World
of Middle East Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile